Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An excavation in the form of steps made by the mining of ore from steeply inclined or vertical veins.
  • transitive verb To remove (ore) from or mine by means of a stope.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An excavation made in a mine to remove the ore which has been rendered accessible by the shafts and drifts.
  • noun An obsolete form of stoop.
  • In mining, to remove the contents of a vein.
  • noun Middle English forms of stapen, past participle of step.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • past participle obsolete Stepped; gone; advanced.
  • noun (Mining) A horizontal working forming one of a series, the working faces of which present the appearance of a flight of steps.
  • transitive verb To excavate in the form of stopes.
  • transitive verb To fill in with rubbish, as a space from which the ore has been worked out.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mining excavation in the form of a terrace of steps.
  • verb mining To excavate in the form of stopes.
  • verb mining To fill in with rubbish, as a space from which the ore has been worked out.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from Low German, step, from Middle Low German stōpe.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Apparently related to step, but with uncertain phonological development. Perhaps from a German Low German word like Stoop ("step"), from Middle Low German stōpe ("step"). More at stoop.

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Examples

  • People need to grow up and stope seeing what they can sue people over.

    On Nerf Guns In Schools 2009

  • People need to grow up and stope seeing what they can sue people over.

    On Nerf Guns In Schools 2009

  • Leahy should stope lecturing on racial politics to amke his poltical point.

    Leahy on Sotomayor: 'Stop the racial politics' 2009

  • For a # of years I used Rems Extended Range l68 grs, but they stope making them and went to the Sciroccos.

    Bullets Do Odd Things at Different Ranges 2009

  • For a # of years I used Rems Extended Range l68 grs, but they stope making them and went to the Sciroccos.

    Bullets Do Odd Things at Different Ranges 2009

  • The best pratice you can use is a 22 or a BB gun try all positions then when you think you got a tuch for how to stope teh game, switch to the hutgig gun you gonna use with cheapo ammo.

    Why Americans Can't Shoot 2008

  • “A drawpoint is a horizontal plan located at the base of a stope that is generally the link between the stope and the haulage drift allowing recuperation of the broken ore.” trackback

    hughstimson.org » Blog Archive » Question: What is Drawpoint? 2008

  • Kamel Labiad 1 month ago wow great work was that stope motion?

    AT-AT day afternoon on Vimeo 2010

  • And yan, if it wes his mynd and will yat he should be disponit vpoun, ye said deaconis and craftismen sould convey him yaire; quha answerit, yat yai culd na way stope ye executioun of justice.

    The Abbot 2008

  • They discovered an unknown underground mine working - tunnel, raise, or stope - and that was not what we were hoping to discover an ore deposit is more like what we were looking for.

    Stuck Again Silver Fox 2008

Comments

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  • Steps or shelves left around a mining site after the removal of ore-bearing dirt.

    March 10, 2008

  • I was examining stopes just the other day. A stope is better defined as the area (off the main shaft) from which ore-bearing rock is extracted.

    March 10, 2008